St. Francis Health Center Topeka Tinman Triathlon - Long Course - Triathlon

The Tinman long course just had two large waves of men. Its a mass start this makes the entire first quarter of the swim very crowded. It was also somewhat odd because the course immediately went to the right, so running into the water was at an angle, almost parallel to the beach.

My swim was below expectations. I just never found a groove, and never found a good set of feet to draft off of. I'm struggling to figure out why I am a 1:30 swimmer at the pool consistently but I clocked in at more like 1:55 in this event and several others before. I guess what it means is that Open water just isn't the pool, and I need to get this idea that I'm a strong swimmer out of my head and work harder in the open water.

I need to focus on doing more open water swims.

Transition one went pretty well I got my wetsuit off fairly quickly. I was somewhat concerned about this as this was my first wetsuit swim. Since Transitions is something that I literally never practice, I thought it went ok.

Actually practice

Overall, the bike went pretty good. In hindsight I don't think I pushed myself quite enough. I think I enjoyed passing people a little too much and settled in and got a little too comfortable. Looking at my download of the race, I see my heart rate was pretty high at the start before I started to relax. I took one goo about 5 miles in. I should have done it sooner. I had 2 taped to my bike and never took the 2nd one. I think this was a mistake that hurt me later. Toward the end of the bike I got past by a couple of guys who were moving pretty good. I heard a set of zips behind me and when he passed me, I thought "I can't have that" and decided that I could not let them get away. I stayed on their tail for the next 8 miles or so. That tells me I should have been faster for the whole ride. I think I was comfortable passing weaker riders and didn't chase the stronger riders. I was really hoping to finish over 20 MPH, which would be a good improvement for me, but I finished at 19.5.

Push harder throughout. I never felt like I was in trouble. I think I was too accepting of allowing "fast" people pass me at the very beginning. I think I need to pick a rabbit and just chase.

Transition number 2 also went fairly well there's not much that I would change.

This is where things got rough and pretty dark. For some reason I just didn't seem to have gas in the tank. I felt it right away. The first mile or so, I actually was on pace (I peeked at my watch and was running a little of 8min/mi pace). On the run, there is a small hill by the ball fields and I walked up. Even though I was on pace, I knew I was in trouble. As I rounded the ball field I felt the sun. As I was crossing the damn I got a huge cramp my hamstring. It felt like my muscle turned into a softball. Its kinda freaked me out because I've never had that happen before in my hamstring. I've had lots of cramps in my calves but never in the hamstring. I thought this would finish me. Severe calf cramps have lingered with me for days and made me walk with a limp.

I started walking and massaging it out after a minute or two some guy came up behind me and told me "Come on". I don't know why but I did. I ran alongside him for about the next 4 miles. I really feel like, he carried me. Had he not told me to "come on" my day would have been even darker. During the run he also picked up two more runners that were struggling, so there were 4 of us for a while. I don't know who he was. His name is Steve and he is a coach from Wichita. He is 59 and I believe won his age group.

At about mile six I lost Steve. He kept going at the start of a large hill at the end and I had to walk it.

I'm really not exactly sure what happened in the race I expected/hoped to come in between 8 and 8.5 minutes per mile. I was almost two minutes slower than that today. I didn't think those expectations were not unrealistic. I did 8:28 last September to end the season. I think it was a mistake to assume that my best race last season would be right where I pick up this season.

More preparation for the heat. I cooked out there.

Seeing that I finished 17/21 in my age group is embarrassing to me, but it is what it is. This *seems* like failure to me. I know, it's really not, though. I've never thought about being in contention. I'm too new in this sport and do not come from a background in any of the three sports. My fitness is still "new". Also, I read somewhere recently that the sport of triathlon is just pretty competitive. It's an involved sport and expensive to venture into....most people that do it are pretty serious and also "pretty good". But still, I'm doing this "for my health", but not "only" for my health.

Thinking back, one thing that is disappointing to me is that I did not execute the mental part of the gameplan well at all. I recently read an article by Macca called "Embrace the Suck". Basically, he reviewed how to approach the race when things get tough. I read that article. I enjoyed it. But in thinking back, I didn't apply a single one of his suggestions. This is where I need to improve. I'm not a fast runner, but if I'm smart and execute, I know I can do better.

After the race I took in water, a generic cola and a few bites of some pizza. It took about 15 minutes for me to feel like doing much more than this.

Steve met me at the finish line and congratulated me. He introduced me to the race winner who I noticed seemed to be looking quite clean and fresh already. ha!


I thought I was better prepared for the run, but I wasn't. It cooked me today!


I noticed a few new things this year...it seems like they cut some costs. The t-shirt is was just a plain tee. Not a nicer quality tech tee like last year. Also, post race there was no sports drinks: only cans of cola and diet cola and a bunch of pizza. Last year they gave each participant an ice cold sponge as they crossed the finish line. Boy did I miss that!

I can't complain too much, all of those things are minor. Just luxuries. The announcer is annoying, but informative. The race is very organized and the bike course folks and the aid stations all seemed to have things under control.

This one is going to stick with me for a while and motivate me to improve.

One last thing...why is this course always advertised as 7 miles, when it's actually closer to 7.6-8 miles?